Regal is a British brand of

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

s. It is currently owned and manufactured by

Imperial Tobacco Imperial Brands plc (originally the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland, and subsequently Imperial Tobacco Group plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company headquartered in Bristol, England. It is ...

History

The coupon cigarette was originally released as Embassy Regal Filter in 1969. The brand became very popular and sold coupon cigarettes until around 1999. Classed as a "premium" brand cigarette, they are one of the most expensive cigarette products available in the United Kingdom. Regal are very popular in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

and in the north of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

; further south Regal's sister brand

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

is more popular. Regal is available in king size and regular filter size. In 2014 the cigarette factory in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

that produced Regal cigarettes closed its doors and production was moved to Germany and Poland.

"Reg" advertising campaign

In the 1990s, Imperial Tobacco launched an advertising campaign featuring an everyman named Reg who offered his dad-humour insights on various subjects. The first ad read, "Reg on Smoking: I smoke 'em because my name's on 'em." As he held his fingers over the 'al' in Regal. More adverts followed, such as "Reg on train-spotting: "There's one." and "Reg on party politics: 'If you drop ash on the carpet you won't get invited again.'"

claimed that Reg did not encourage children to smoke, as the character was viewed as "repulsive and far from cool". However, the campaign was eventually withdrawn because medical researchers discovered that the stupid humour of the ads appealed mostly to young adolescents, whereas adults 33–55 years old, who were supposedly the target group for the campaign, did not identify with Reg.

Counterfeits

In April 2002, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' reported that middlemen were offering supposedly duty-free Regal and Silk Cut cigarettes to consumers. These products turned out to be illegally counterfeited in Chinese factories on the border between

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

and

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

provinces and were highly toxic. Alongside the health risks of smoking, the cigarettes were produced in unhygienic factory conditions and included tobacco sweepings,

sawdust Sawdust (or wood dust) is a by-product or waste product of woodworking operations such as sawing, sanding, milling and routing. It is composed of very small chips of wood. These operations can be performed by woodworking machinery, portable p ...

, dirt, banned chemicals as well as high levels of tar and

nicotine Nicotine is a natural product, naturally produced alkaloid in the nightshade family of plants (most predominantly in tobacco and ''Duboisia hopwoodii'') and is widely used recreational drug use, recreationally as a stimulant and anxiolytic. As ...

. These counterfeits cost £2.5 billion in lost revenue in 2001 and were thought to account for 'at least a quarter of all the cigarettes smoked in Britain' in that year according to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

References

{{Imperial Tobacco Cigarette brands Imperial Brands brands British brands 1969 introductions